Dr. Ann Pegoraro
Dr. Ann Pegoraro

Dr. Ann Pegoraro, professor in the Department of Management and Lang Chair in Sport Management, spoke to Mashable following the U.S. women’s soccer national team’s loss at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Pegoraro discussed how some Americans cheered for the squad’s loss, focusing their ire on former team co-captain Megan Rapinoe.

Pegoraro said Rapinoe’s “unabashed advocacy” for gender and LGBTQ2IA+ equality, trans inclusion and abortion rights represents “everything right-wing conservatives oppose.”

Pegoraro, a faculty member in the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, is also director of the International Institute for Sport Business and Leadership and co-director of the National Network for Research on Gender Equity in Canadian Sport.